Enterococci are gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic bacteria of the family Enterococcaceae. They were previously classified as Group D streptococci. Enterococci are found in the bowels of most humans and are commonly isolated from stool, urine and sites of intra-abdominal and lower extremity infection. Bacteria of the genus Enterococcus are often regarded as harmless commensals of the gastrointestinal tract, but within the last 10 years they have become an important cause of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections, not because of increased virulence but because of antibiotic resistance. It has been estimated in the United States of America, that 800,000 cases of enterococcal infection occur each year resulting in costs of around $500 million. To infect hosts, enterococci primarily colonize mucosal surfaces. Enterococci are aetiological agents of bacteraemia, surgical wound infections, urinary tract infections, and endocarditis. They are also associated with obligate anaerobes in mixed infections that result in intra-abdominal abscesses. Overall, there are about seventeen species of enterococci, among which Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium appear to be the most commonly detected in human faeces. E. faecalis accounts for most of the enterococcal infections of humans, usually representing 80-90% of clinical isolates. E. faecium is detected much less frequently but is nevertheless of significance because of a high incidence of multiple resistances to antibacterial agents. Enterococcal infections are commonly treated with antimicrobials and until recently they have been adequately controlled using these agents. However, drug-resistant enterococcal strains are emerging, and infection by strains resistant to all presently available antibiotics may become a serious problem in the near future. Some enterococci have already acquired intrinsic resistance to β-lactam-based antibiotics (penicillins) as well as many aminoglycosides. In the last two decades, particularly virulent strains of Enterococcus which are even resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin (Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus, or VRE) have emerged in nosocomial infections of hospitalized patients. Despite the urgent need for the development of new antibiotics, the major pharmaceutical companies appear to have lost interest in the antibiotic market. In 2002, only 5 out of the more than 500 drugs in phase II or phase III clinical development were new antibiotics. In the last 6 years only 10 antibiotics have been registered and only 2 of those did not exhibit cross-reactivity with existing drugs (and thus not subject to the same patterns of drug resistance). This trend has been attributed to several factors: the cost of new drug development and the relatively small return on investment that infectious disease treatments yield compared to drugs against hypertension, arthritis and lifestyle drugs e.g. for impotence. Another contributing factor is the increasing difficulty in finding new targets, further driving up development costs. Therefore, investigation into novel therapies or preventative measures for (multi-drug-resistant) bacterial infections is urgently needed to meet this impending healthcare crisis.
Active immunization with vaccines and passive immunization with immunoglobulins are promising alternatives to classical small molecule therapy. A few bacterial diseases that once caused widespread illness, disability, and death can now be prevented through the use of vaccines. The vaccines are based on weakened (attenuated) or dead bacteria, components of the bacterial surface or on inactivated toxins. The immune response raised by a vaccine is mainly directed to immunogenic structures, a limited number of proteins or sugar structures on the bacteria that are actively processed by the immune system. Since these immunogenic structures are very specific to the organism, the vaccine needs to comprise the immunogenic components of all variants of the bacteria against which the vaccine should be protective. As a consequence thereof, vaccines are very complex, take long and are expensive to develop. Further complicating the design of vaccines is the phenomenon of ‘antigen replacement’. This occurs when new strains become prevalent that are serologically and thus antigenically distinct from those strains covered by the vaccines. The immune status of the populations at risk for nosocomial infections further complicates vaccine design. These patients are inherently unwell and may even be immunocompromised (due to the effect of immunosuppressive drugs) resulting in delayed or insufficient immunity against the infecting pathogens. Furthermore, except in the case of certain elective procedures, it may not be possible to identify and vaccinate the at risk patients in time to give them sufficient immune protection from infection.
Direct administration of therapeutic immunoglobulins, also referred to as passive immunization, does not require an immune response from the patient and therefore gives immediate protection. In addition, passive immunization can be directed to bacterial structures that are not immunogenic and that are less specific to the organism. Passive immunization against pathogenic organisms has been based on immunoglobulins derived from sera of human or non-human donors. However, blood-derived products have potential health risks inherently associated with these products. In addition, the immunoglobulins can display batch-to-batch variation and may be of limited availability in case of sudden mass exposures. Recombinantly produced antibodies do not have these disadvantages and thus offer an opportunity to replace immunoglobulins derived from sera.
Murine monoclonal antibodies directed against enterococcal antigens are known in the art (see, WO 03/072607). However, murine antibodies are limited for their use in vivo due to problems associated with administration of murine antibodies to humans, such as short serum half life, an inability to trigger certain human effector functions and elicitation of an unwanted dramatic immune response against the murine antibody in a human (HAMA).
WO 99/18996 relates to enterococcus antigens and vaccines. WO 99/18996 further discloses rabbit antiserum against conjugated purified antigens from enterococci, and opsonic activity of such antiserum.
Although WO 99/18996 refers to human antibodies as desired molecules, the antibodies actually disclosed and used therein are of rabbit origin, and this document actually does not actually disclose any human antibodies, nor sequences thereof.